TRAVEL AND HOLIDAY LAKE NAIVASHA, KENYA --- ELSAMERE AND SOPA RESORT

“Elsamere” George and Joy Adamsons house…

Lake Naivasha is the second largest and the highest lake of the Central Rift Valley lakes of Kenya. It is the remains of a great lake which spread through the basins and spilled out at its southern end through the Ol Njorowa Gorge (Hell's Gate National Park), this freshwater lake has kept much of its old colonial charm and is also the centre of a prosperous flower export business.

2010 marked the centenary of the birth of Joy Adamson – a pioneer in the field of conservation. With her husband George, senior game warden for Kenya’s untamed Northern Province, she established one of the world’s first wild animal appeals which in 1963 became the Elsa Conservation Trust.

“For years I had been looking for a house where George and I could live. Eventually I found a place that seemed to combine all we wished for. It would be impossible to imagine a more attractive site for a home ...We decided to call our home... Elsamere”.

--Joy Adamson

Today the Elsa Conservation Trust continues its lifelong commitment to wildlife conservation operating a wildlife retreat and an education centre at the Adamson’s former home at Elsamere on the shores of Lake Naivasha in Kenya’s Rift Valley. 

The Elsa Story 

The story of the raising of an orphan lion cub by Joy and George Adamson in the 1950s and her subsequent release into the African bush is one of the great conservation stories of all time. Born Free - Joy’s captivating book about Elsa the lioness - was published by Harvill Press in 1960 and soon received international acclaim. In the years which followed, Joy published sequels to Born Free and more books about her hand-reared cheetah (Pippa) and  leopard (Penny). In 1966 Born Free became a film starring husband-and-wife actors Bill Travers and Virginia McKenna.  Filmed in the Kenya bush over the course of many months, it was shown as a Royal Command performance in London and soon became a worldwide hit.

The house owned by the couple who rescued Elsa the lion, immortalised by the lovely film Born Free is now a fantastic place to stay on Lake Naivasha. You can stay in the house or, more cheaply in the dormitories at the study centre.
The house has double and triple rooms and is perfect for a couple or group of friends. The rooms are in little bungalows dotted around the lawn and all face out on to the Lake. You take meals in the house or, alternatively you can have tea out on the lawn with the Colobus monkeys sitting up above you in the trees!
There is a little museum in the house where you can view lots of artifacts from George and Joy's fascinating lives and also a small viewing room where you can watch a video of their lives and the conservation work that has continued at Elsamere.
A short walk through the grounds, the study centre, used a lot by school and conservation groups, has dormitories, several seminar rooms, it's own dining room and a lovely outside place where you can sit around a bonfire at night.
The whole place has a lovely friendly atmosphere, is homely and welcoming and serves great food.
I'm a bird watcher and this place is magical. I have met plenty of other 'twitchers' here on my visits who are all as enchanted with it as me!
People are very friendly at Elsamere....it's that sort of place. It doesn't have a swimming pool and isn't very up to date or swish but you can go out in a small boat with an expert guide and you are very likely to see hippos on the lawns (as well as giraffe and zebras) at night.

Naivasha Sopa Resort and Nature Walk…..

Lake Naivasha Sopa Lodge is set on the southern shorelines of Lake Naivasha in Africa’s Great Rift Valley. The resort blends perfectly in its natural surroundings.
Being one of Kenya’s most up-market destinations, it is the ideal base from which to explore the surrounding countryside and nearby National Parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
100kms from Nairobi, the lodge is just over an hour’s drive on tarmac roads or 45 minutes by air to the Lake Naivasha airstrip.

Set in one hundred and fifty acres of grassland studded with Acacia bushes and trees, the resort is not only home to resident giraffes, waterbuck and both Vervet and Colobus monkeys, but it is also a night stop for the hippos when they leave the lake every night to come and trim the grass on the expansive lawns of the resort.
With Sopa’s traditional and conscientious care for the environment, they have carefully positioned all the buildings on the property to avoid the cutting of the very old and beautiful trees. As a result of this, the resort has a radically innovative and artistic design for the main public area building which now snakes its way between trees with long and graceful curves. Towering cacti and manicured gardens front the massive luxury cottages at this new resort. Upstairs suites boast balconies, king-sized beds, modern bathrooms, TVs and pure comfort, while downstairs options only differ in that they have twin queen-sized beds and spill right into the gardens. Besides the pool, there's also a gym, sauna and lakeside path. The arc-shaped bar and restaurant, with massive vaulted ceilings, is gorgeous.

The interiors are beautifully done and very restful. It was really a wonderful experience to walk the Nature Trail around the resort which went right up to the lake and the boat docks and back again through the jungle. I managed to get a few beautiful bird and animal pictures around the trail.
I have put up some pictures of both the places as a slide show.

The slide show has music and will start automatically in 2 minutes after loading. Please be Patient.

“ME” a Closer Look…..

“ME” a Closer Look…..

What do we know about ourselves? Just the pathetic articles we have taken out of our kitbag of learnt behaviors and our externally programmed nature.  This is what we are. The thinking mind and mirror neurons concocting a mix of all the former, shaping you into what you now think you are. Through this “what we are”, we create a world view for our self. Do you have inner freedom are you totally joyful? No? Then change.

The experience of self enlightenment is simple to state. It is the experience of self awareness only, awareness that is aware of nothing at all except the existence of awareness itself.

During the experience of awareness, the thought-processing mind is empty, body awareness is lost, there is no feeling, all reality disappears. There is nothing in the imagination, there is nothing anywhere. 

It is an experience of nothing, of the void.

The key understanding that results from this experience of pure nothing is that one is still alive even when everything is gone. One realizes that one's existence does not depend on anything except self awareness itself. One realizes that awareness is the primal reality, the permanent core of our selves.

The enlightenment experience makes many things immediately clear. It is clear that one's existence does not depend on anything except awareness. This brings complete relief and liberation. It is clear that life is awareness, and not what awareness experiences. So the body, the mind, the physical universe, feelings, knowledge, are all non-essential to being alive. 

Fear and guilt vanish because self awareness is beyond harm and experience is not part of one's being.

It is clear that all experience comes from outside of oneself, that experience merely flows through awareness, and that one is not responsible for the helpless act of experiencing one's experience. In short, this state of freedom solves every problem by eliminating it, and provides a completely unburdened peace.

Mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons provide clues to how children learn: they kick in at birth. Dr. Andrew Meltzoff at the University of Washington has published studies showing that infants a few minutes old will stick out their tongues at adults doing the same thing. More than other primates, human children are hard-wired for imitation, he said, their mirror neurons involved in observing what others do and practicing doing the same things.

Mirror Neurons work best in real life, when people are face to face. Virtual reality and videos are shadowy substitutes. Nevertheless, a study in the January 2006 issue of Media Psychology found that when children watched violent television programs, mirror neurons, as well as several brain regions involved in aggression were activated, increasing the probability that the children would behave violently.

The ability to share the emotions of others and imitate appears to be intimately linked to the functioning of mirror neurons, said Dr. Christian Keysers, who studies the neural basis of empathy at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands and who has published several recent articles on the topic in Neuron. When you see someone touched in a painful way, your own pain areas are activated, he said. When you see a spider crawl up someone's leg, you feel a creepy sensation because your mirror neurons are firing. In short your behavior and nature is learnt.

If you are ready you will have the courage to look at yourself and admit “Nothing is original in me all is someone else’s ideas”, just the way I was programmed as I grew up from birth to this day”. I am totally mistuned to the romance of this world, of this life. You have to go nowhere, do nothing just watch yourself and remember how you are responding under different circumstances, different experiences. “You” must become the most important thing in your life. Actually you already are in a way: your egos, your feelings, your hurts. You are very good at immediately knowing what others are doing, You know what kind of person the other is. Yet do you know your own self how you are…….

All of us really do not have that awareness, it is missing. Let us start seeing what is happening to me from moment to moment. This includes my actions, my thoughts, my reactions, my emotions my all. The way I talk, the way I communicate, the way I sit, move also the way I eat, in short everything.

Watch and watch and be aware of what you really are as a product of your thinking mind. In this awareness you will see the truth of what you really are. So this is the part where you will actually come to know about yourself a good beginning. Now you will realize your egos, your “I-ness” the “mine-ness” your selfishness. Drop the façades of what you want others to think you are and start becoming authentic, be the real you what is as you know to be inside. You will forget from time to time start again. Be aware of not fooling yourself about your facades being the real you, that would be a foolishness of the highest order. 

One day you might wince to hear the tone of your own voice! Suddenly you will realize that you are clumsy, sloppy, bang doors, short tempered, impatient, possessive, dictatorial, hearing what you want to hear, slurp while having tea and on and on. Slowly through tremendous awareness about your own self, you will start knowing this alien you were harboring for so long. Once you become aware of this alien wrapped up in so many theatricals, you will gradually start dropping these things and will start to be in tune with your inner true self. This is the first step to joyfulness of your being, opening up communication with your inner self, or your soul or a group of genes directing your true path in life.

 I reproduce here again the art of sitting silently from my previous blog. The second step to self awareness. Please do practice as written and experience the joyfulness of your being.

THE ART OF DOING NOTHING OR SITTING SILENTLY

1. This is the art of doing nothing.

2. Can be done very easily by everybody. It does not take up too much time. It is required to be done 3 times a day for 20 minutes at a time.

3. Benefits : Relaxes the body, the brain/intellect and helps to alleviate all kinds of Stresses. This sitting silently allows the body to get rid of stress producing hormones and proteins like Cortisol and DEOH. Plus it also helps in producing Serotonin which is the chemical which makes us feel happy and joyful. Most importantly it gives rest to the mind. Meaning it carries out maintenance of our thinking mind. Further you will find that over a time you will require less sleep at night. Importantly you will train your thinking mind to let go of thoughts ( let thoughts come and go), and not react every time. So in your day to day life you will not react to negative experiences, those are also finally thoughts. These thoughts will come again but now you will not react but respond logically.

4. While sitting silently for 20 minutes we will not focus on anything, or on any thoughts. It is simply an art of doing nothing.

5. Remove your belt so that you are comfortable. Remove your glasses. Sit in a straight backed chair your buttocks touching the back of the chair. You must have support for your back.  Ankles crossed. Sit straight. However your head should be slightly bent forward from the neck to attain a comfortable position. Keep your hands in your lap, palms facing upwards, the palm of your right hand sitting in the palm of your left. If the chair has arm rests you may rest your elbows on the rest if you feel comfortable otherwise need not. Now close your eyes. Please tell your family members or friends not to disturb you in any way for 20 minutes. If anything is urgent they must only tap you on the head. You may come out of silence as explained later.

6. Relax your feet and toes, then your ankles, then calf muscles, then your thigh muscles, then your stomach, chest, shoulders, neck, arms, wrists and hands. Sit silently in this state. Let your thoughts come and let them go. Do nothing, do not try to stop your thoughts importantly do not get involved in your thoughts, let them come and let them go. Even sounds or smells from outside are thoughts let them come and let them go. Example a thought comes to you that you have to ring up your boss at 8 o clock about an important client message, now don’t start thinking what will the boss say, can you keep the client happy etc. That is getting involved, let that thought come and let it go. Similarly you hear a motor cycle horn outside don’t get involved in the sound by thinking who must it be now in the morning etc. let it come and let it go. Just do nothing. 

7. In the beginning there will be hundreds of thoughts coming and going gradually they will reduce and you will have periods without any thoughts. Starting maybe 10-15 secs you will have no thought periods, slowly over the days , weeks, months, years these periods without thoughts will increase. We have to achieve nothing, nothing will happen, do not have expectations as to this will happen or that will happen. Just continue 3 times a day for 20 minutes. If your head bends forward more let it. No problems. But do not let it bend backwards and take support/rest against a wall or something, the moment your head gets support/rests against a wall you might fall asleep. You may fall asleep initially if you are too stressed. Do not worry when you wake up don’t get up suddenly you may feel groggy, continue sitting silently till your 20 minutes are up.

8.  Coming out of silence. Initially you can set your mobile or clock alarm for 20 minutes. After some practice you will automatically know that 20 minutes are up. For coming out of silence, do not open your eyes. Move your hands first, rub your palms against each other, wipe your face with your hands, then wipe your arms and wrists, stretch your hands to the front once or twice. Then slowly blink your eyes 3-4 times, close them again for a few seconds then again open them very slowly. If you feel like sitting sit there for 3-4 minutes before getting up do sit.

9. Conditions. There are’nt too many conditions. You must be a little bit hungry and a little bit tired that’s all. Therefore the right times are just before you have breakfast, before lunch and before dinner in the evening. You can practice this type of silence in a train, a bus or anywhere. There are no conditions except you must have some support/rest for your back. People at home or in office may make fun of you, do not worry. In the office you can easily spend 15- 20 minutes of your lunch time for meditating before lunch. It does not take more than 15 minutes to have lunch. This will be time well spent than just gossiping. 
Others will soon follow you.

You can use some music to initially help you with sitting silently. It is a 20 minute cut from Ganapati Sachidanand Swami's Celestial Message in his Music for meditation collection. You can down load from here

https://sites.google.com/site/ajayukidve/mp3

 “To thine own self at least be true”

Reminds me of a story…

Once a farmer found an abandoned eagle's nest and in it was an egg still warm. He took the egg back to his farm and laid it in the nest of one of his hens. The egg hatched and the baby eagle grew up along with the other chickens. It pecked about the farmyard, scrabbling for grain. It spent its life within the yard and rarely looked up. When it was very old, one day it lifted up its head and saw above it a wonderful sight - an eagle soaring high above in the sky. Looking at it, the old creature sighed and said to itself, "If only I'd been born an eagle".

Have a wonderful weekend !

Ajay